A Guided Path Through Pain

The most important piece of information I gleamed from HC Fox’s article “Frequency of recent cocaine and alcohol use affects drug craving and associated responses to stress and drug-related cues” was the use of guided imagery. Guided imagery involves “re-living” a recent stressful or drug-related personal event through guided imagery and recall. I feel like this would be a good way to have the addicts in my study focus on their addiction before the pain test. Instead of just telling the addicts to think of their addiction, this method would be standardized and repeatable, meaning the participants would all be told to imagine the same scenario. It might be how they felt when they last indulged in their addiction, or imagining a scenario where they can indulge in their addiction all they want with no consequences. I want to try and mimic the obsession that comes with intense addiction, and focusing in this manner might work.

Also, I liked the statistic analyses that were performed. A linear mixed effect model is good when there are repeated measurements from the same individual. This could be good if I have the participants do the pain test with and without the independent variable. A T-test was performed, which is good to determine demographic and baseline drug differences. Both of these statistical models could be used in my study.